Chloé Thomas, Isabelle Maître and Ronan Symoneaux
The purpose of this paper is to propose an agile methodology for the development of food products that has two key characteristics: (1) consumers are included as co-creators and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an agile methodology for the development of food products that has two key characteristics: (1) consumers are included as co-creators and (2) the assessment of environmental impacts plays a central role.
Design/methodology/approach
In collaboration with a French small-to-mid-size enterprise, a research-intervention approach was used to test the agile methodology designed, which features three iterative runs of food product development. In each run, prototypes were presented and modified with consumers during focus groups. Life cycle analysis assessed the relative environmental impacts of the prototypes. The research data from consumers were mainly qualitative.
Findings
The main result of this work is the implementation of a methodology to develop new food products in an efficient way by integrating consumers' insights and environmental concerns simultaneously. The method was successful in integrating consumers as co-creators and in drawing attention to the potential environmental effects of different prototypes for the decision-making process.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on a single case study. Thus, generalisation to other companies is limited. The authors invite further research focussed on different types of companies. The methodology and the tools could be modified to suit a variety of contexts.
Originality/value
This work addresses the need for guidelines to integrate consumers and environmental considerations into the food development process by testing an agile methodology with a company. It contributes to the scope of sustainable and consumer-oriented food innovation management.
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Keywords
Isabelle Bourdon, Chris Kimble and Nathalie Tessier
The purpose of this paper was to gain a better understanding of the nature of online communities, the relationships within them and the relationship between such communities and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to gain a better understanding of the nature of online communities, the relationships within them and the relationship between such communities and the host organization. Knowledge sharing via participation in online communities is a central part of many multinational organizations’ business strategies; however, the task is not always straightforward.
Design/methodology/approach
The research focused on power relationships in online communities. The approach was inductive and consisted of an exploratory case study using semi-structured interviews, augmented with direct observation and documentary sources, within a framework provided by the French sociologists Crozier and Friedberg.
Findings
The findings identify the various reasons for participating in the community and aspects of both the relationships within the community and between the community and the host company.
Practical implications
The research shows that online communities are not easy to categorize and that attempting to use a single solution for the management of such communities risks oversimplifying a complex situation. It also shows that Crozier and Friedberg’s framework is useful in highlighting issues that otherwise might not have been noticed.
Originality/value
Issues of power are often neglected in studies of online communities. The use of Crozier and Friedberg’s framework offers a novel way to examine power relationships, which can offer new insights into how such communities function.
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Nicolas Brisset, Raphaël Fèvre and Pierre Jean
This chapter aims to address the question of the evolution of economists’s reception of Marxism in France, and thus to complete the more general history of the development of…
Abstract
This chapter aims to address the question of the evolution of economists’s reception of Marxism in France, and thus to complete the more general history of the development of Marxism among French academics. To do so, we follow the relationship to Marx’s work of the economist François Perroux, a priori typical of the reversal reception of Marxist ideas in the 1950s, moving from open hostility to enthusiasm. Indeed, an incisive critic of Marx’s writings before the war, then head of the scientific institution of the Vichy regime, Perroux became in the postwar period a leading figure in the diffusion of Marx’s ideas in France. He founded the ISMEA (Institute of Mathematical and Applied Economic Sciences) which published the journal Études de marxologie, and eventually penned the preface to Marx’s economic works in 1963 for the Pléiade. By following this sinuous path, we show that the way Perroux related to Marx’s work helps us shed light on the various shifts in Perroux’s relationship to the science and politics of his time.